


gold plated (but what's inside you?)

by orosea



Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Minor Character Death, Multi, just a short little thing based on the prologue of the game, like too much for 500 words im an edgelord essentially
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 13:39:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12133680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orosea/pseuds/orosea
Summary: "above the stars shone hard and bright, sparks struck off the dark skin of the universe."The fall of the tower was not without casualities.





	gold plated (but what's inside you?)

**Author's Note:**

> im an edgelord that wanted to write something sad for destiny since most of the writing in 2 was very marvel-esqe qnd bantery and this is vaguely inspired by the subclass lore.
> 
> (title is from last of the real ones by fall out boy)

The cabal ship hits the civilian side of the tower first. She was chatting with a member of her boyfriend’s family when they heard the cries of terror and the crashing of the sky. It was sunny that day and the snack booth was overflowing with kids tired of the sweltering heat. No one hears the whistle of the missile but her.

The bomb hits and a shard of shrapnel goes straight into her eye. She gasps, stuttered and bowed over. What a day to not be in her full warlock armor. There is a scream next to her, something shredded and broken and ugly.

Warmth running down her face, the ash floating in the sky around her like snow, the first guardian falls that night.

* * *

“Listen to me.” It’s an urgent whisper and the child in front of hun gazes up with glossed over eyes. Fear. “Hide.” It was all he could think of. Oh god he wasn’t cut out for this. He was just a transporter. He was just trying to make a living, keep his family upright. He shuffles the girl behind a cargo crate.

He has a little girl like this back at home, down to the innocent eyes and buck teeth. The steps of the cabal are closer, heavy thudding that sinks deeper into the recesses of his heart. They’re going to find them if they keep walking in this direction. Adam’s apple bobbing, he looks towards the child, his fear as great as hers.

“Find a guardian. Don’t be seen.” The girl’s lower lip wobbles, tears glinting in her eyes. He takes a deep breath. With all the strength in his legs, he dashes, the cries of the cabal following him to his grave.

* * *

 

Someone else's grenade kills him in the end. It’s a scrabble, the war hounds piling and piling like a mound of moving flesh. He times his leap wrong, bouncing back down into the flurry of claws and teeth. That was his first mistake.

They rip at his legs first, fangs thick and sturdy as they tear at his armor. He can’t tell what’s going on but he can hear his how screams pitch up as talons sink into his shoulder, tearing his cloak and shoulder blade. They gnaw and gnaw and he can’t struggle, just make vain attempts to call on a light that's not there. His throwing knife long clattered somewhere on the floor.

He hears it before he can call out for help. The sound of arc energy, crackling and bursting. It’s too late when he shouts. He _burns_.

* * *

She gets left behind. A sting of betrayal and a comradeship tattered like the titans mark that hangs from her waist. There is a cabal general on her left and a mass of war hounds on her right and her fireteam on the evacuation ship. She is surrounded on all sides.

She calls on the light desperately. With just a tiny inkling of hope that it will save her. Like it always did. Her fists are beaten and bloody, her ammo gone, and this feels nothing like retribution. It feels doomed.

She will be painted as a war hero, someone who sacrificed herself. She is a soldier. A defender. A wall. Crumbling. She bleeds out, surrounded by the intense purple glow of the sentinel shield.

* * *

“Don’t let them reach the Traveller!” Were Zavala’s last words to you when he violently shoved you out of the bubble. Ikora, Cayde, they’re all fighting to protect the light. Their home. And here you are crushed underneath a cabals foot. What a guardian.

You cannot protect the Traveller, you can’t even protect yourself. You gaze up at the cabal from on your knees, helmet cracked and broken, it clogs your vision with soot and destruction. You do not try to shield yourself from the fall when you are pushed from the scaffolding.

You wake up to the marches of the cabal fleets and the light nowhere to be found.

 


End file.
